Sixty-Five Roses
by FANGirls Forever
Summary: Max is a fifteen year old girl, living in a Sick house for terminal children. They say she's only going to live to twenty-five, but she believes otherwise. And when a new boy becomes her roommate, she become more determined to outlast him. Until she realizes she is falling for him, something she swore never to do. FAX, No Wings. Rated T for Language.
1. Chapter 1

**I've been playing with this idea for a long time,**

**So I decided to post before school started back up.**

**Disclaimer: Like always, I do not own Maximum Ride.**

* * *

God, how I'd missed this place. The drafty and broken rooms, the drill sergeants they call nurses, the wonderful and stuffy smell of chemicals and surgical masks. Now that I'm thinking about it, I realize how little I actually miss, sorry, missed the old "Sick house". In fact, I'd really rather be at home in Arizona, back cuddling in my bed. I don't care if I coughed up more blood onto the pillowcase; I just wanted to be there. I just wanted to be anywhere but here.

"Yo, Max. How's the fibrosis treating you?" I heard my name from down the hall of Walker Institute, Home for Terminal Children. Where dreams come alive, or y'know, die, seeing as we all are "terminal". Including the boy waving enthusiastically from down the hall, an uncharacteristic smile spread across his face. It was probably just seeing me back here, suffering with the rest of them, lifting his spirits.

"If I'm in the terminal sick house, how do you think it is dumb ass?" I snapped back as the terminal boy ran up to me, his smile fading. If it matters to you at all, which it shouldn't, the boy's name is Iggy. Not really, but that's what I call him, and that's all you need to know. He's a strawberry blonde cursed with the terminal disease of lung cancer, stage four. Probably only has five years left, but he's lasted till fourteen, so who can really tell?

"God," He snarled as he approached, a sour look squirming onto his face. "don't be such a hard ass. Haven't seen you for two months."

"Don't be mistaken, those were the best two months of my existence." I shot back, almost wincing when I looked up to where my mother was watching us with her deep, brown, and disgustingly pitying eyes. I did say almost.

"Whatever, dude." Iggy responded, a small grin crept up onto his lips, but I didn't notice. I was too busy thinking about how long he'd been in Walker's for. No one says dude anymore. "Hey, Max." He said suddenly and peered at my mouth. "What's that on the corner of your mouth? I think there's like cranberry juice there or something. It's super red."

I shook my head slowly and sent him a dirty look while he stood there grinning away. My mother however, suddenly became hysterical, kneeling down next to me and grabbing my head in both hands, turning it this way and that to see if any blood would somehow magically appear on my mouth. Needless to say, it didn't, and she was not a happy clam with Iggy.

"I'm fine mum. Don't worry about Iggy. The tumor must have spread to his optic nerves." I snarled as Iggy snorted, his blue eyes shining.

"Max." My mother scolded harshly but Iggy raised a hand, chuckling silently.

"It's fine, Dr. M." He told her. I could tell he wanted to insult me in return, but seeing as I was her daughter, Iggy couldn't really say much more. "I'm heading down to the cafeteria. You wanna join?" He asked me. I shrugged at first, but then re-contemplated. Stay with my mother and sign a bunch of forms before heading straight to the nurses, or go with Iggy and put off any "treatment" those war veterans might want to hand out.

I grabbed Iggy's wrist and set off, full throttle down the hallway. "I'm going with Iggy, Mom. See ya!" I shouted as Iggy made a choking sound. If it were anyone else, I would've slowed down. But this was Iggy, so I cornered sharply and left it up to him not to smack his head on the wall.

* * *

Don't get me wrong, I loved my mother much more than the drab facility, but when it came to smothering, she'd win an award. It's not like I blamed her, smothering was in the job description, I mean, mother is in the word. But I didn't come here to be pitied. When you were surrounded by kids who probably had a lot less time than you, you didn't really get a butt load of time to feel sorry for yourself. Unless you're one of them.

Walker's isn't as bad as I make it out to be. There are about five floors to the huge building, like a high school or something but with dorms instead of classrooms and our medical section is a hell of a lot bigger. Anyway, our dorms start on the second floor and are separated into different sections. Some based on what disease you have, but we just say it's differentiated by how terminal you are. Fifth floor, least terminal, second floor, you have months, if that. Why? So they don't risk having to take the stairs with stretcher.

I'm kidding... but not really.

Most of the dorms are shared by people of the same gender and close to the same age. But lately, the facility has gotten extremely crowded. That fact is kinda sad. Either the rate of pregnancy has skyrocketed and consequentially so has the amount of children with disease, or something else is out there. I don't believe in coincidence.

But as I was saying, same gender, same age. But since we've become packed, that rule is no longer in effect, so fifteen year old Iggy got put with some seventeen year old kid with one leg and a bad attitude. Or so he said as we walked towards the cafeteria. At least, he was, until he stopped talking about an average teenager minus one limb and more so about my motives.

"So, you're not actually coming with me, right?" He asked as we turned down another grey hallway. I shrugged, pushing open a heavy metal door.

"Probably not, I need to unpack." I told him. When we'd met up, I was on my last trip to my room. All my luggage was already up on the fourth floor, sitting on my sheetless bed.

He nodded, grimly, but sarcastically he added, "Ah yes, the dreadful hour of unpacking. I don't know why you don't just keep your luggage here; you must have unpacked at least eight times." He got a bit of a glare for that, but we were already at the staircase, so further insults would have to wait.

As I started up the steps, Iggy leaned against the railing on the other side. "Stop by later, would you? We have much catching up to do." He drawled like a posh lady from the nineteenth century. But I rolled my eyes and smiled anyway.

"Of course, what else would I be doing?" I asked sarcastically.

Iggy grinned. "Yes, what would you do without me?" He asked dramatically before heading for the next set of doors. "Those months must have been such a drag."

"Again, best months of my existence." I called in response but he pushed open the doors and disappeared from my view. So I started my trek once more, but this time alone.

* * *

I'm being dramatic of course. The "alone" part didn't last long. I was halfway to my room, and who would open the door from the third floor but my sweet little stalker, Angelique. She and her older brother, Andrew, lived on the third floor with rooms across from each other. They've been there since Angel was born and never went home. They didn't have a place to go. Their mother could barely take the stress of raising Andrew after learning of his disease. And when Angel was born with the same one, she bailed. She left Andrew in the hospital waiting room with Angel in his lap and never looked back. But Angel didn't seem to care, and Andrew hardly ever mentioned her. Seven and ten year olds just filled to the top with positivity. 2% of the time it was disgusting, but the other 98%, how are you supposed to turn away those adorable little smiles?

"Max! You're back!" Angel was squealing as she ran through the heavy metal door and into the stairwell. I don't get how anyone could not smile when you heard that enthusiasm? She ran right into me and wrapped her tiny little hands around my legs. She only came up to my hips and was a thin as a toothpick.

"Yeah, I guess I am, short stuff." I replied and ruffled her short blonde curls as she giggled up at me, her face beaming.

"Have you seen the others yet? Iggy was so bored here without you." She told me as I climbed the carpeted stairs with her bouncing beside me. I smirked.

"Was he now?" I asked slyly. "Well, I guess I'll just have to squeeze him like crazy when I see him." Yeah, squeeze all the air out of his lungs. "How are you feeling?"

"I was feeling tired before..." She trailed off and grabbed my hand loosely. "But not now that your here. We're going to have so much fun!"

"Yeah, as soon as I unpack." I said, trying not to look down where her hand was twitching a bit in mine.

We soon reached my regular room in the corner of the hallway. Angel had always said I was lucky to get a corner room, but I disagreed. It was a hassle to get my wheelie suitcase in the door unless it was at the exact angle, much like parallel parking. I guess I wouldn't really know, I've never driven before.

* * *

The room was bright with natural sunlight, but I flipped on the light anyway, getting rid of any shadows that were lurking in the corners. All my suitcases were already sitting on my bare bed, waiting to be rooted through and emptied. Even my toothbrush was already in my bathroom. That was the real reason Angel said my room was the best; I got my own bathroom. My mum made sure I did, since if I was coughing up blood, she didn't want me to walk down the hall to get to a toilet. How sweet of her.

"Don't you get lonely in here?" Angel suddenly asked me as I crossed over to my bed. I liked to use the one furthest from the door. It was right up against the wall so I could lean against it as I sat down on the hard mattress.

"Nope, it's nice to have some privacy." I told her and saw her scowl slightly with disapproval. She was a seven year old disapproving of my anti-social behavior. "But I guess some company might be nice." I added with a sigh before noticing a loose button on her small dress and pointed it out.

"Well..." She said as she tried to fasten her button, her left hand still twitching. Every time she would get close to putting the button through the hole, her hand would twitch and she would start all over again. "What do you think, Max?"

"Hm?" I asked, missing what she'd said earlier when I was watching her hands.

"I said, maybe I can move in with you."

"Sorry, that's impossible now."

She pouted up at me, still fiddling with her buttons. I think she managed to undo another in her struggle. "Why?" She said, whining a bit.

I frowned and hopped off the bed, making my way to a kneeling position in front of her. I took the small buttons from her fingers and did them up quickly. "I thought I told you not to whine." I told her as I stood and ruffled her hair. "It's not cute."

Angel opened her mouth like she was going to whine again, but instead she maturely closed it, contemplating what I said.

"Besides, I'm getting a roommate, so you don't have to worry about me being lonely." I said as she cocked her head up at me.

"When are you getting a roommate? Who is it?" She asked and I shrugged, letting out a small sigh. She asked a lot of questions.

"I don't remember his name." I admitted.

"Ew, a boy." I'm ashamed to say I screamed a little as a small blonde head popped out from under my bed. How are you not supposed to when a random head just pokes out from a bed? It was Andrew, Angel's older brother, grinning mischievously as he looked up at me with shinning blue eyes. "You gonna kiss him?"

"Why are you in here?" I yelled as he laughed , his cheeks red as blood stared to rush to his head.

"I was going to surprise you when you came in before, but my leg starts acting up and I got stuck." He explained as he pushed himself the rest of the way out from under the bed. He was grinning like mad as he used the bed to push himself up. "By the way, I wouldn't go under there anytime soon, if you know what I mean."

"Oh god Gaz, that's gross."

I guess I should probably explain.

* * *

Angel and Andrew both have ALS, or for a professional diagnosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. I think some baseball player had it back when television was black and white. I could explain all the details, and if you have a heart, make you feel all mushy, but I don't think I'll do that. Basically, their muscles keep getting weaker until their unable to control some parts of their body. For example, when Andrew was born he had trouble opening his eyes and when he was a toddler, he could barely walk. His left leg muscles are much weaker than they should be. That's how they discovered he had the disease.

As for Angel, she nearly swallowed her tongue as a baby. I guess that and the fact that Angel can barely use her left hand was diagnosis enough for their mother. Oh and then there's that muscle in Andrew's digestive system he isn't exactly "in control" of. If you're wondering where the nickname Gazzy comes from, there's your answer.

"It's totally not my fault, just a reminder." Gazzy said slyly. He always found a way to get out of everything, and it was more than a little annoying sometimes. But since this was my room, I had excuses to kick him out.

"Look guys," I said, sitting back down on my bed. "I'm super tired and I still gotta unpack. Mind giving me some privacy?"

Gazzy's lip curled distastefully but Angel just smiled and grabbed his wrist. "Sure, Max. We'll see you later." She said sweetly and half dragged her brother from my room.

* * *

I felt a little guilty, but more than that I felt relaxed. I lay down and shut my eyes, thankful for the much needed privacy. I hadn't exactly had privacy for over two months. When I was at home, my mother made it her personal mission to make sure I was healthy and happy, unless I wanted to do something "dangerous". So in other words, I wasn't allowed to live when I was at home. Here, not many people gave a crap what I did in my spare time as long as I was breathing and wasn't trying to stop that.

I was just starting to drift off into a welcomed nap when I felt a buzz go off in my pocket. I was truly content on ignoring it, believing it was just my mother, trying to check up on me, making sure I hadn't died after climbing four flights of stairs. But I didn't need her to be hysterical and running up to my room, ruining any time I might have had to myself.

It wasn't her though, it was an unknown number.

I answered the phone, deciding to have some fun. "It's done," I whispered into the receiver. "But there's blood everywhere."

"Wait, what?" I hung up the phone and lay my head down again, shutting my eyes and hoping to get some sleep. Until my phone started to buzz again.

I groaned and answered, this time with a normal "hello".

"Okay, what the hell was that? I call your number and you act like you just killed a guy in cold blood for the mafia." I had to move my ear away from the speaker as the person on the other end practically screamed into the mic.

"That was the point, Nudge." I moaned, more than a bit ticked off as I snapped at her. "What do you want?"

"God, aren't we in a bitchy mood." Nudge spat into the phone. "I just called because I heard the big new."

I paused. "What news?"

"That you're living with a guy, DUH!" She screamed the last part and I winced away from the speaker again. "I can't believe you didn't tell me. I had to hear it from Angel and Gazzy!"

"They were out of my room for like two seconds!" I snapped, cursing the siblings in the back of my mind.

Nudge made a "so what" noise on the phone before I heard her shuffling around. "What are you doing?" I asked, hearing a door shut.

"Coming up, you have to tell me all about it!"

"No, you are not coming over here!" I snapped. Nudge lived on the fourth floor with me. Brittle diabetes didn't count for much pity around here so the only reason she was on fifth was so they could give her medication more easily. "I'm tired as hell and you're loud as Satan." I gave her a second to work out what I said as I shut my eyes, wondering if it would be possible to drift off before she responded.

"I don't get it." It wasn't possible.

"It means turn on your heel and go back to your room. I can smell your enthusiasm from here."

"I'm not in my room." Nudge said simply as if she were throwing a smart comment back in my face.

"Now I'm confused." I said.

"I'm downstairs with Iggy, we're going to play video games in his room. His roommate's away on holidays so we're jacking his system as payback for his bitching." She said, chuckling evilly. "Not until after we get our fill of entertainment though."

"You have a dark gift Monique Jackson. If only you could use your knowledge of technology for something useful." I said, sighing slightly. I heard her snort on the other end.

"What's the fun in that?" She asked before putting on a strange, pleading voice. "Say you'll come, Max."

"I'll come."

"Really?" She sounded so hopeful, I hated to break her spirits.

"You said I had to say it, not mean it." I told her and she made an irritated sound on the other end.

"Max says she won't come!" I heard her shout distantly. She must have been covering the microphone. There was soon a series of shuffling, static noises before Iggy's voice came on the line.

"Max, get your butt down here. It'll be the six of us, You, me, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy and a soon to be out of commission game console." He said seriously. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. You have to come."

"Yeah, or we'll drag you down forcefully." Nudge piped in.

"I'd like to see you try." I sneered back before sighing. "I actually wouldn't, so I'll be down in five minutes. You dorks better have snacks."

I heard Nudge cheer before I hung up. I guess unpacking would have to wait till later. I just wanted to sleep, was that too much to ask? But without complaining further, I left the room, leaving the lights on as I left. I wasn't in the mood to save the earth if it was set on killing me.

* * *

**Love it? Hate it? Or should I stop slacking with my other stories.**

**Let me know!**


	2. Chapter 2

Someone was much more energy conscious than I was. I noticed it even before I walked into my room that something was off. It was probably around 11:30 when I went back up to my floor. The lights were already dimmed seeing as some of the kids were already in their curfew hours. I couldn't see the light through the crack under my door, and my handle was sitting slightly lower than where I'd left it. When you walk into a room enough, you can tell the difference. Walker's was more my home than the one back in Arizona, and I could definitely tell that someone was in my room.

My brain was turned off, I wasn't thinking about my new roommate. I was thinking about Iggy's roommate and how pissed he was going to be when he came back to a mysterious problem with him gaming console.

I cautiously entered the room, looking around the dark atmosphere. I hated the dark. It's stupid, I know, but I've always hated it. If there is a dark corner somewhere, then it's a place for things to hide and go undiscovered. And then, when you're least expecting it, they attack

I rapidly flipped on the light, breathing deeply as the darkness vanished. I crossed over to my bed and sat down, eyeing the suitcase that sat, still unpacked, beside me. Yeah, that was a mistake. No one wants to unpack their suitcase when they'd rather be sleeping. But I could either unpack it or sleep without pajamas and covers. Jeans or flannel? Put on sheets or don't? Decisions, decisions.

I started to move the bag off the bed before hearing a sink turn on and off inside the bathroom. I paused, listening as footsteps shuffled around. And then the doorknob started to turn. I leapt up and stood in front of it, waiting to see the intruder.

It really wasn't as bad as I thought.

It was way worse.

* * *

It was a boy, like I would've expected if I had been thinking straight. But that wasn't the worst part. Everything about him was dark. Dark black hair, dark black eyes, dark olive skin, and dark black clothes. It was like a damn walking nightmare. What am I supposed to do when I wake up and I just see a dark figure in the bed next to mine? But I wasn't a kid anymore, and I don't show fear in the face of, well, my fears.

"Um, hey..." I couldn't think of anything less stupid to say. He didn't really look like he had much to say either. I opened my mouth to say something else, but his hand flew up to stop me.

"Can we do this whole awkward introductions thing tomorrow?" He asked. There, his voice was dark and a bit too. This was going to be hell.

"Pfft, awkward how?" I asked, shrugging. Smooth Max, real smooth.

He looked me up and down once. "I thought you were going to be a guy."

And then there was silence. He was right; this was going to be extremely awkward.

When I didn't say anything else, he slid past me and sat on his already made bed, grabbing a headset from off his nightstand. He didn't get under the covers or anything; he just lay on his bed with his eyes shut and the headphones on. Without knowing what else to do, I went to my own bed and pushed the suitcase under the ground. Sleeping in my jeans just became my first option.

I shut off the light before slowly making my way to my bed, lying down on the mattress. It was thin and uncomfortable, but not like the ones in a hospital. Unlike those, Walker's actually tried to set a decent level of comfort. You know, when you weren't on treatment. Nudge for example got to be pricked and poked with needles about three times per months, not counting all the times her medication changed.

Then there was me. At least once a week a nurse would take me to her office and make me lie face first on a tilted bed before pounding the mucus out of my lungs. Its way more fun than it sounds, at least for the nurse. I think it reminds her of being in the military.

I try not to think too much about other people at Walker's, but for some reason, this guy was still on my mind. I was almost desperate to ask him what he was in for, but I usually didn't ask that kind of thing. People told me, or they didn't, but it was usually the former. Was the diagnosis part of the introduction? Well he was only on the fourth floor, so it couldn't have been that bad. I just hoped he didn't get treatment in here. Those were the worst kind of roommates to have. It was one of the reasons I asked to have my treatment done in the medical wing. That and I didn't need anyone looking when a nurse was beating on my chest like a rabid gorilla.

But eventually, I shut my eyes and hoped sleep would come. I didn't need to be up any later and be drowsy later. But I spared another look at the boy across from me. His hands were folded over his stomach and his eyes rather than relaxed gently were more squeezed shut, a small line was intruding between his eyebrows. I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not since his breathing patter didn't really seem to change. In fact, it sounded more like he wasn't even breathing. It would've looked more like he were dead if every so often I didn't see his chest rise and fall.

Yeah it was creepy, but then again, at Walker's, who isn't creepy?

* * *

"Max? Max? Open the fucking door, I know you can't still be sleeping!" Wrong Nudge, so very wrong. I was practically growling into my pillow as Nudge banged over and over again on the door. I had gotten probably about seven hours of sleep, which does seem like a fair amount, unless you fell asleep at four thirty and it was just barely eleven when you woke up. I don't know what it was last night, but apparently my brain decided it would be a good night to not let me sleep so I could sound even more idiotic during awkward introductions.

Oh god, that guy would still be here.

I slowly sat up, trying not to blind myself in the light trying to burn its way through my curtains. I saw a dark figure cross the room through my blurry eyes and heard footsteps, and because my brain was turned off I just decided to let him answer the door while I flopped back down onto my pillow.

"Max! Open this door!" I turned my head to the side and watched as my roommate flung open the door as Nudge was in mid-shout. From the side I could see the sharpness in his features that looked like they were carved neatly from stone. Even just his finger were long and and a bit boney, but we saw a lot of "boney" here.

Nudge's shouts immediately stopped as the door swung open and I saw here eyes widen for only a second before a small smile snuck onto her face. "Damn, you sure aren't Max but I could wake up to you every morning."

That woke me up.

"Nudge!" I practically screeched at her and shot up like a rocket, my eyes burning from the sun as Nudge smiled mischievously. She blatantly ignored me and turned back to the guy. I could see one of his eyebrows raised as he stared her down.

"You must be Fang. Some guy on my floor wouldn't shut up last night about you coming here." She said, starting a conversation like she hadn't just made the most forward first impression I'd ever heard from her.

'Fang's' eyebrow raised higher. I didn't even think that was possible. "Some guy?"

"Yeah, David, or Decklan, something like that."

"Great. Excuse me." Fang brushed past her and into the hall, heading for the stairwell. I would've watched him from behind a little longer but Nudge shut the door behind her.

"Why didn't you tell me he was hot? God, Max! I wasn't even prepared." She snapped, still smiling as she came forwards collapsing into a bean bag chair by the window. I glared at her as I stepped off my bed, heading towards her.

"I cannot believe you said that to him!"

"Why not? It was true." She said blatantly before raising an eyebrow, looking at my head. She reached into her bag and pulled out a large brush and handed it to me. "You have some serious bed head. Tame that unruly mane." I groaned impatiently but still took the brush and went into the bathroom, grabbing an elastic band from my drawer. Without brushing my hair, I threw my fuzzy blonde stands into a bun above my head and grabbed my toothbrush instead, globing on disgusting toothpaste my mother had bought that was supposed to kill germs. Wasn't all toothpaste supposed to do that?

"I said brush it, not hide it!" Nudge snapped peering into the room as I held my mouth over the sink, getting rid of the disgusting taste in my mouth. It really was disgusting, but instead of normal morning breath mine got to go along with the faint, metallic smell of copper. Charming, right?

"Oll ush it ayer." It was supposed to be "I'll brush it later," but that's definitely not how it came out. But Nudge got the gist and rolled her eyes before turning away.

"The cafeteria is already closed and making lunch so come to Iggy's room, we can snack there. Bring soda money." She called as I spit into the sink.

"Sure, give me two minutes." I told her as she left the room. I quickly threw on a fresh pair of sweatpants and a baby blue tank top. Wasn't my most attractive outfit, wasn't exactly my worst. It's not like I was going anywhere.

It had been about a minute when I was leaving my room, my hair still up in a bun. Nudge would care, but she wouldn't bother to comb it, knowing it would probably be up again by the end of the day.

I pulled open the door to the stairwell quickly not wanting to face the wrath of Iggy, or you know, not get there before they ate everything, but I ran into someone on my way down. Someone with a lot of black clothing. Hah, time for awkward introductions.

I stared at Fang for short time before shaking my head, holding out a hand. My head only came up to about his shoulder, something that always pissed me off, and I had to crane my neck back to look straight at him. "Max Ride." I said simply, mostly because I couldn't think of anything else to say. It's not like we just walked up to anyone and said, "Hey guess what, you shouldn't get close to me because I probably won't live past thirty, and that's if I'm lucky." No, we were just normal people, with normal brains (well, most of us) and normal personalities. Oh, and terminal illnesses.

Fang took my hand, shaking it firmly. His fingers were much longer than mine and just his hand in general was larger. I thought he could hide my fist in his if he tried, but he didn't. "Nick Walker."

"Nick, not Fang?" I asked and he gave a small shrug. I was expecting a response, but that was it. And with a nod of his head, our conversation was over. Except we both just stood there... for a long time. Our hands eventually dropped and we stopped staring each other, but neither of us made the move to leave first. It seemed kind of rude to just walk off, but we'd said about seven words, well I mean I said more than half of them, and he shrugged, but that was it. It couldn't really be called a conversation. So we just stood there, not making eye contact. God it was awkward, just like he said it would be. Was he so quiet with everyone? He seemed like the type to be cocky and have a disgustingly big ego.

"It's a nickname." He said suddenly and I looked up at him. He wasn't looking at me though, more like over my head and a couple inches to the right. I nodded. I never realized how bad I was at carrying conversations, unless it was him, not me. Yeah, it was him. Everyone knows I'm soo perfect.

"I gotta go unpack." F-Nick said suddenly and brushed past me. There, now our conversation was over. I could've walked away just like that, but no, I had to turn around, open my big mouth and talk.

"I like Fang better." I said bluntly, shutting my mouth quickly after I said it. He looked back over his shoulder, but I didn't wait to meet his eyes and scrambled down the stairs, not slowing down until I heard the door slam and echo throughout the stairwell. It was stupid that I couldn't even talk without there being something wrong with me. I mean, you'd think with all the free time I had being home schooled that I would be good at something. Nope, I'm just good at being awkward, and maybe a tad insane. Maybe a bit more than a tad, more like a pint probably. Hello, crazy people, Max Ride joining you.

That's not the worst part. The worst part was I forgot the soda money, in my room, also where Nick was unpacking.

Idiot, idiot, idiot, IDIOT!

* * *

Anyway, as I contemplated asking Nudge to pay for drinks instead, I realized she probably paid all of yesterday and it wouldn't be an option. Iggy didn't had to save money since he was going to have to repay his roommate for the game console, and Gazzy and Angel were to young for me to take money from, especially since all Angel had were bills from the tooth fairy our therapist gave to kids when they lost teeth. He was kind of like a second mother, as disturbing as that might sound, trying to give the kids here a fulfilling childhood and what not. But some of these mothers were actually crazy enough to drive to Walker's themselves to but a dollar under their kids pillows. My mother definitely was one of them.

I had already started to walk back to my room and was nearing the door. I had a bit of money saved up from when I was actually at home and worked. Yes, the ice cream store hired a terminal kid part time during the summer. It's not that surprising and I've yet to know whether it was my interesting handicap story or my work ethic that dragged me into work, probably the former.

But when I went to open the door, my hand on the door and everything, it swung open and collied with my nose. I was dying with pain but my reaction had already kicked in, meaning I kicked the door full force and it went slamming back to a close position after I heard it collide with something on the other side. Crap.

Idiot, idiot, idiot, IDIOT!

I heard a small thump before I opened the door, the bottom hitting something against the ground. The opening was just big enough for me to stick my head through. And then I looked at what was blocking the door. "Oh shit."

You know, I've had roommates and they've complained about countless things before. But killing them has never been a problem, at least until today.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I've taken so long to update.**

**A bit of a shorter chapter this time but I promise I'll update soon.**

**Hope you like it, even if it's kind of a filler.**

* * *

"So I didn't actually kill him, right?" I asked again, leaning over the nurse's desk. Mrs. Rhodes looked up at me with tired and irritated brown eyes. Her hair was short and black, and her skin was much darker than Nudge's. I felt like she told me once where she served in the army as a nurse but she was long since retired and I'd long since forgotten.

"Max, do you think I'd be sitting here talking to you if you'd just killed your roommate?" Her voice was drawling with annoyance as she spoke to me, one eyebrow raised slightly. If I'm being honest, I didn't know how to answer her question.

"I think it would be entirely possible." I finally responded and she rolled her eyes, standing with her clipboard as she moved towards a coffee machine in the corner.

"You didn't kill him and to be honest, I don't think you were the one who knocked him out either."

"What do you mean?"

The nurse opened her mouth like she was going to say something but she quickly shut it. I think she forgot I wasn't one of her co-workers. Damn, it would've been so much faster to find out what was wrong with him from the nurse rather than Nick himself. "I'm just saying it's happened before and it'll probably happen again. And if it does, you just call down like you did this time and we'll take care of it."

She'd finished filling up her Styrofoam cup and walked back to the desk, settling in again before tapping away on the keyboard. I sat back down in a waiting chair, determined to stick around and apologise when he woke up. I mean, I know I made a pretty bad first impression but I didn't mean to hit him with the door. And he kind of hit me too, so if he wasn't a jerk (god I hoped he wasn't a jerk) then maybe he'd apologise too. It was probably what we need anyway, one of those awkward movie moments where we break through the embarrassment and find out we have so much in common. But we can leave the love montage out.

Still, I was antsy. Every minute seemed to pass for one hour and just after two I was back on my feet leaning on the nurse's desk again. "So what you're saying is I didn't kill him?"

Mrs. Rhodes groaned and buried her forehead in her hands. She didn't even look up when she spoke. "No Max, he is fine."

"Great." I breathed, waiting as she slowly looked up, and her eyes shut as she breathed deeply. "Can I get you something?" I offered and she eyeballed me.

"Do you know somewhere with good coffee?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Then you can get me a large, black." She grabbed a five from her purse and handed it to me. The first time she smiled was when I took the five and walked out the door. It thought they were supposed to smile when you went in but apparently it went both ways.

* * *

I shut the door gently behind me as I stepped out into the hallway, breathing deeply. It hadn't even been half an hour since Nick had introduced himself to me and I knocked him out by hitting him with door. Or by not hitting him with door apparently. I wished she just tell me what his condition was and fix the problem before it got out of hand. But that's apparently not the way "patient doctor confidentiality" works. C'mon, you're at Walker's, we all know there's something wrong with everyone here.

"Max, what the hell?" I heard Nudge call from behind me and spun on my heel to spot her coming around the corner of the hall. She held up her pink phone and held it out at me like it was the black plague. "You send me text saying you killed your roommate? You've got to be kidding me."

"I didn't kill him; I just did but didn't knock him out." I tried to justify. It was a very poor attempt and Nudge gave me an exasperated look.

"Again, you've got to be kidding me."

I groaned as I headed for the entrance of the building. "He's fine. I don't even know what he has yet. And even if it's weird, he's on my floor. It obviously can't be that bad if the nurses won't tell me what it is."

Nudge shrugged in response, quiet for a moment. I tried to figure out what she was thinking but there was nothing I could read and she was kind of freaking me out with the silence. "Don't worry," I said suddenly, "I didn't ruin your crushes face."

"Oh my god, shut up!" Nudge snapped quietly before slapping my arm. I gave her a look but she stuck her nose in the air and kept walking beside me. "I don't have a crush on him; he's just the first eye candy to walk in here for a long time."

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "What about that time with Sloan?"

She glared at me. "He wasn't that good looking."

"That time with Eddie?"

"Bad breath."

"That time you dumped Jared for-"

"He had a small dick, okay!" A few people who passed us in the halls turned their heads to look at her but she kept walking until we had reached the front desk and she looked like she was going to explode. "Where are you going?"

"I have to get a coffee for one of the nurses." I told her before pulling out my wallet, looking for my I.D pass to give to the secretary, Marc. He couldn't even be called a secretary since all he basically did was input our sign in's and out's while he got his med degree, and that was all done by computer anyway.

Nudge looked at me evilly. "Really, coffee?" She asked as I found my pass. Before I knew it, she hooked her arm with mine. "Well, now you have to buy me one too." I groaned loudly as we approached Marc.

* * *

"Good afternoon ladies. And where might you be headed?" He asked sweetly as I scowled at him.

"We're going to the Bean." I told him, referring to a coffee shop nearby. He instantly perked up.

"Oh, lucky you. Their lattes are to die for." He said before a look came over his face that looked a little like Nudge's. "Say Max, if you're heading over-"

"I'm not on a coffee run, Marc. I'm not getting you latte." I snapped and he laughed.

"Yes I see. We are very serious today."

"Shut it Marc. I'm going to file a complaint about the obnoxious way you treat patients here." I threatened and he laughed as he wrote something on a small slip of paper and handed it to me.

"Anyway, it's not for coffee." He said as I took the folded piece of paper. "If there's a barista named Melodie there, can you give this to her?"

I gave him a look before looking at his pathetic face and failing to stay strong. "What are you, twenty-eight? Are you seriously asking a sickly fourteen year old girl to run your errands?" I asked faking a cough.

He gave me a pursed lip look. "You're going there anyway Max."

"I know," I said evilly. "But I just don't like you that much." Okay, that was a lie. Marc was better than the grump of a woman we got on Thursday's on his day off.

"C'mon Max, do it for me?" He asked with a smile. I smiled back but faked another weak sounding cough. "I can't, I'm sick."

He smiled like he knew something I didn't. "Oh, well, if you're sick I certainly can't grant you permission to go out today Max. In fact, maybe I'll call the medbay and have them bring you in." His finger danced on the intercom while I scowled at him.

"Fine, I'll give her your stupid little paper." I said and he smiled cheerfully while taking both my and Nudge's I.D, punching them into the computer and handing them back.

"Have a lovely day. Remember to be back by six."

I grunted n response as he unlocked the sliding doors.

"Oh, and Max," he called to my back. "I'm only twenty."


End file.
